APFormer Denver Broncos general manager Brian Xanders has found a new home.

According to Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press, Xanders has been hired to work in the Lions front office. Per the team’s official website, Xanders will be a senior personnel executive for the Lions and has been tasked with changing the evaluation process for the team’s scouting department.

Xanders joined the Broncos as the team’s assistant general manager in 2008 before being promoted to general manager the following season. Xanders served as the Broncos general manager for three seasons from 2009 through 2011. Prior to his time in Denver, Xanders spent 14 years with the Atlanta Falcons in a variety of coaching and front office roles.

APFormer Denver Broncos general manager Brian Xanders has found a new home.

According to Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press, Xanders has been hired to work in the Lions front office. Per the team’s official website, Xanders will be a senior personnel executive for the Lions and has been tasked with changing the evaluation process for the team’s scouting department.

Xanders joined the Broncos as the team’s assistant general manager in 2008 before being promoted to general manager the following season. Xanders served as the Broncos general manager for three seasons from 2009 through 2011. Prior to his time in Denver, Xanders spent 14 years with the Atlanta Falcons in a variety of coaching and front office roles.

I love it... Absolutely love it. I think the Bronco's have done a great job with their talent, as well as the Falcons. This is the first move this offseason that has given me hope. Mayhew and Co. should be crapping their pants.

APFormer Denver Broncos general manager Brian Xanders has found a new home.

According to Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press, Xanders has been hired to work in the Lions front office. Per the team’s official website, Xanders will be a senior personnel executive for the Lions and has been tasked with changing the evaluation process for the team’s scouting department.

Xanders joined the Broncos as the team’s assistant general manager in 2008 before being promoted to general manager the following season. Xanders served as the Broncos general manager for three seasons from 2009 through 2011. Prior to his time in Denver, Xanders spent 14 years with the Atlanta Falcons in a variety of coaching and front office roles.

This could be the best thing they have done in a long time. Xanders is a true personnel guy having worked in college and pro scouting for the Falcons before becoming a GM. He drafted Miller, Franklin, Beadles, Thomas, Decker, Moore, Walton, and Wolfe who are all good starters. He also found Chris Harris as an undrafted FA. If he truly was the guy making all these decisions in Denver then this is a really great hire. He even signed Wjb's favorite cheap FA DB Porter, which shows he has a good eye for cheap talent. It should really help to have a personnel man with real results working with the scouting department. I'm all in with this hire.

I also just read that he left the Broncos because Elway wouldn't give him full control as a GM and was putting other guys in charge of contracts and scouting. It sounds to me like Xanders will be gunning for the top spot and if he shows even half the results he had in Denver I would give it too him.

January 28th, 2013, 9:29 pm

liontrax

1st Round Pick

Joined: March 21st, 2005, 2:11 pmPosts: 1201Location: Wolverine, Mi.

Re: Lions hire Xanders

Anything to improve our underachieving scouting dept. is a plus.

January 28th, 2013, 9:31 pm

wjb21ndtown

Re: Lions hire Xanders

liontrax wrote:

Anything to improve our underachieving scouting dept. is a plus.

What are you talking about... AllensLions says they're the best in the league...

Detroit Lions GM Martin Mayhew says Brian Xanders has been brought in to build an in-house, electronic scouting system as well as help evaluate the current processBrian Xanders

Detroit Lions general manager Martin Mayhew said after the season that he was going to look very closely at every avenue possible to improve the football team from the roster, to the coaching staff to the front office.

Mayhew took a step to improve the latter on Monday with the addition of former Denver Broncos general manager Brian Xanders as a senior personnel executive.

Xanders will report directly to Mayhew.

"Brian is a guy I've known for a while as a GM in Denver," Mayhew said. "He has a broad array of experience in a lot of different area and he's another set of eyes on the pro and college scouting.

"He's also a guy who's well-versed in football technology and I think he brings something to the table in that area as well."

One of Xanders' first responsibilities with the Detroit Lions is setting up an in-house scouting system.

"One big thing he's going to be working on right now is building a new scouting system," Mayhew said. "We've contracted that out in the past and bought product from other people and we're actually going to build our own system internally designed strictly for us that we can design and set up."

Xanders has experience building such a system in Atlanta in the 90s, which was one of the first systems built internally like that.

He spent his first 14 seasons in the NFL with the Atlanta Falcons in player personnel, college scouting, pro scouting, coaching and football operations.

"I look forward to doing everything I can to help Martin and coach (Jim) Schwartz and this organization eventually win a Super Bowl," Xanders told Detroitlions.com. "I've had a lot of different experiences and know I can help in a lot of different ways."

Xanders joined the Broncos as assistant general manager under coach Mike Shanahan in 2008 and was promoted to general manager following Josh McDaniels' hiring as head coach a year later.

In 2011, linebacker Von Miller, the No. 2-overall pick, was named the NFL defensive rookie of the year.

Offensive tackle Orlando Franklin, who was the team's second-round pick, started all 16 games as a rookie and all 16 games again this season.

Safeties Rahim Moore and Quinton Carter have started a combined 32 games the last two seasons.

Undrafted free agent cornerback Chris Harris was also a great find, starting 12 games opposite Champ Bailey this season.

"Transitioning over (from the Falcons) to the Broncos and coach Shanahan for the one year in 2008, and then implementing this player personnel system over the last four years, we were successful in free agency and the draft," Xanders said. "I just look forward to helping Martin and his staff in every way possible."

Those 2010 and 2011 drafts in Denver produced the most starts (155) and playing time (more than 12,000 snaps) of any rookie classes in the NFL.

"It goes to his evaluation skill," Mayhew said. "That's attractive to me. A guy who has a background as a GM and did a good job acquiring talent in Denver. I know he's a great evaluator."

Xanders will help to improve the position-specific structure already in place in the personnel office and adds another set of eyes to help determine how players will best fit a role with the Detroit Lions.

Xanders and James Harris, who's been with the Lions the last four years, will share the title of Senior Personnel Executive.

Mayhew could possibly be smarter than I thought, according to this article the hire was his idea. Maybe Mayhew is really learning from his mistakes and I really love the idea of getting an in house scouting dept. Looks like we won't see allenslions "inside info" ever again. LoL

January 28th, 2013, 9:46 pm

liontrax

1st Round Pick

Joined: March 21st, 2005, 2:11 pmPosts: 1201Location: Wolverine, Mi.

Re: Lions hire Xanders

So now we have an X-factor in the Lions scouting regime. Maybe we won't see anymore blunders like Spievay (a 3rd that should have been a sixth at best), Levy (a 3rd that should have been a 5th), Broyles (a 2nd that should have been a 3rd or 4th), and because Ronnell Lewis (last years 4th that probably could have been had in the 5th or 6th) is still basically a rookie, I'll cut him some slack, although I'm not sure if he was drafted to be a LB or a DE. Need I mention T. Young and what a colossal blunder (2nd round) that turned out to be. Should have seen that coming. All of these were early rounds picks that are paramount to building a strong base that can be relied on. But, because of poor drafting we go into this years draft needing players at all these positions.

So now we have an X-factor in the Lions scouting regime. Maybe we won't see anymore blunders like Spievay (a 3rd that should have been a sixth at best), Levy (a 3rd that should have been a 5th), Broyles (a 2nd that should have been a 3rd or 4th), and because Ronnell Lewis (last years 4th that probably could have been had in the 5th or 6th) is still basically a rookie, I'll cut him some slack, although I'm not sure if he was drafted to be a LB or a DE. Need I mention T. Young and what a colossal blunder (2nd round) that turned out to be. Should have seen that coming. All of these were early rounds picks that are paramount to building a strong base that can be relied on. But, because of poor drafting we go into this years draft needing players at all these positions.

From the looks of it. It takes 2 years to start seeing results from his system.

So now we have an X-factor in the Lions scouting regime. Maybe we won't see anymore blunders like Spievay (a 3rd that should have been a sixth at best), Levy (a 3rd that should have been a 5th), Broyles (a 2nd that should have been a 3rd or 4th), and because Ronnell Lewis (last years 4th that probably could have been had in the 5th or 6th) is still basically a rookie, I'll cut him some slack, although I'm not sure if he was drafted to be a LB or a DE. Need I mention T. Young and what a colossal blunder (2nd round) that turned out to be. Should have seen that coming. All of these were early rounds picks that are paramount to building a strong base that can be relied on. But, because of poor drafting we go into this years draft needing players at all these positions.

From the looks of it. It takes 2 years to start seeing results from his system.

Depends on how much say he will have in the draft. Xander's first 2 years in Denver probably had very little to do with him, he definitely had no say with Shanahan and I'm pretty sure McDaniels had his hands all over the 2009 draft. I would say that their probably isn't enough time to get a real system in this year, so it's probably going to be a combination of this new system they are trying to implement and the old one. I just hope he can help Mayhew sort through the garbage they get from their current scouts enough to get at least 2 decent guys after the first round. Next year will probably be the point he can really make a difference and who knows maybe he will be the only one running things by then.

January 29th, 2013, 1:44 pm

DJ-B

Rookie Player of the Year

Joined: April 5th, 2007, 5:51 pmPosts: 2347

Re: Lions hire Xanders

The most interesting part (and unreported so far afaik) is who really hired Xanders. The reports all say Mayhew hired him (as the GM should), but considering he was brought in at a high exec level just below the GM, and at the same "rank" as James Shack Harris, im curious if Bill Ford Jr made this happen with an eye toward the future even if this year gets Mayhew/Schwartz fired... or if Xanders was all mayhew and would be gone also.

January 29th, 2013, 5:13 pm

Blueskies

Player of the Year - Offense

Joined: September 13th, 2007, 12:43 pmPosts: 2882

Re: Lions hire Xanders

Are you guys on crack?

He's one of the worst GMs the Broncos have ever had. He his 2009 class was terrible. He was 2010 class was average, but he drafted Tebow in the first round! That alone should forever relegate him to working at McDonalds.

January 29th, 2013, 8:25 pm

JL

Div 1 - Starter

Joined: December 13th, 2005, 2:09 pmPosts: 536

Re: Lions hire Xanders

Blueskies wrote:

Are you guys on crack?

He's one of the worst GMs the Broncos have ever had. He his 2009 class was terrible. He was 2010 class was average, but he drafted Tebow in the first round! That alone should forever relegate him to working at McDonalds.

In point of fact, Xanders wasn't in charge of the draft when the Broncos drafted Tebow. Josh McDaniels was in charge of the draft and had final say on personnel when he was the coach there. Prior to that, Xanders had a pretty good record finding talent, and still has a very good reputation in the league.

_________________If God isn't a Lions fan, then why is the sky Honolulu Blue?

January 30th, 2013, 10:43 pm

Killwill25

Rookie Player of the Year

Joined: March 5th, 2009, 8:42 pmPosts: 2358Location: Brooklyn, NY

Re: Lions hire Xanders

Blueskies wrote:

Are you guys on crack?

He's one of the worst GMs the Broncos have ever had. He his 2009 class was terrible. He was 2010 class was average, but he drafted Tebow in the first round! That alone should forever relegate him to working at McDonalds.

instead he was working at...wait for it...McDaniels

_________________76 days

January 31st, 2013, 2:08 am

kdsberman

Team MVP

Joined: February 20th, 2007, 10:51 pmPosts: 3426Location: Saginaw, MI

Re: Lions hire Xanders

Killwill25 wrote:

Blueskies wrote:

Are you guys on crack?

He's one of the worst GMs the Broncos have ever had. He his 2009 class was terrible. He was 2010 class was average, but he drafted Tebow in the first round! That alone should forever relegate him to working at McDonalds.